Szczerbinski, Asbaty take charge heading into final day

John Szczerbinski from North Tonawanda, NY, come on down. You are at the top of the standings after day four, and it’s well earned.

After averaging 231 on day four, with a six game total of 1388, John is the clear leader heading into the final day of qualifying with 27 points.

The next closer competitor is 36 points away. That is proof of John’s incredible bowling across all the days, and all the patterns to this point. Consider this: his only day of supposed struggling was on day 2, when he finished in 17th place.

John has been a model of consistency, and he has been a shot making machine.

All he needs to do is finish 50th or better today to secure his spot in the top 3 and his place on Team USA.

Other competitors that were high up struggled a bit, including Kyle King (24th), and especially Marshall Kent, who was in second place going into day 4.

Things could have been much worse for Marshall though. After game one, he was in 125th place with a 171. After game two, Marshall was in 118th place with a 195. With his next 3 games of 254, 207, & 227, Marshall moved all the way up to 27th, until finishing the day in 51st place due to his final game 189.

Marshall now sits in a tie for 5th with 80 points, however, second place is John Janawicz (63 points), third is Kyle King (72 points), and 4th is EJ Tackett of Huntington, IN (77 points).

With standings that tight, anything can happen on the final day.

For the women, Diandra Asbaty bided her time, bowling well each of the first three days, until day four, when she blistered the lane condition and the field to the tune of a 240 average with a six game total of 1443, which saw her move to number one in the overall standings with 27 total points.

With only 30 percent of the field averaging 200 or better, it was a most impressive performance.

Diandra began the day with a 277, and proceeded to shoot 724 for her first three and 719 for her last three.

The previous leader, Danielle McEwan, was having a very difficult day, as she was in 44th place after game five, due to a 160 & 158 in games three and five, but once again, she finished like a champion, rolling a 245 her final game, to move up from 44th to 28th at the end of day four.

That left her with 44 total points, and has her in 4th place, behind Jacqueline Carbonetto from Blauvelt, NY (39 points), and Sarah Lokker from New Baltimore, MI (42 points).

If Danielle had not rolled that last game, she could have found herself with too much to do on the last day to make the team. Instead, she is in prime position to make the top 3, and be a Team USA member for the second straight year.

Remember, you only need to make the top 3 to qualify, and there are stepladder finals tonight for the men and women top 3 to determine who is the overall champion. That will be live streamed from 9PM – 11PM tonight.

Competition gets underway at 11AM EST for the the final day of qualifying, day five, today, with the ladies leading off.

A special note must be made of Del Ballard. He accompanied Lucas Wiseman on the live stream for portions of the mens qualifying yesterday, and he was tremendous. Del dispensed a large amount of helpful information, tips, and thoughts on what he was seeing during the day, and about bowling in general. Del was outstanding in every regard.